Football Player Charged With Murder Of Trans Woman

David Etute, who was arrested back in June for the May 31 killing, has said that Smith presented himself as a woman named Angie on Tinder. Under the purported assumption that Smith was a woman, Etute, 18, said they got together in April and had oral sex. The next month, Etute said he suspected Smith, 40, was not a biological woman and, according to the Roanoke Times, “groped Smith to try to determine his gender, used his phone’s flashlight to get a better look at Smith in the dark apartment, then began punching him.”

During a hearing in June shortly after the killing, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jason Morgan said Etute was “stomping” Smith, who was left left “bubbling and gurgling” on his floor at his home in Blacksburg. Morgan said every bone in Smith’s face was broken, including having his teeth knocked out along with fractures of the cranium.